Decorating My Room

[Verminator89]

Basically i'm in the middle of tearing down my room to redecorate. I'm at the point where i'm sleeping on a matress on the floor with a 4ft cabinet next to me with my 3ft tank on. In terms of decorating i'll be sanding down all my walls/ceiling, this creates ALOT of dust. So i'm wondering if a simple blanket over the tank will suffice, or maybe two? If not i guess the simple answer would be dismantle the tank and house it downstairs temporarily untill the room is done.

Anyone have any tips on what can be done to minimise anything and everything from stress to the fish, ease and practicallity of what needs/can be done.

Thanks in advance

 

[Ludwig Venter]

A blanket would be fine, but some folks do say that the paint fumes can dissolve in your water...... I dunno.... I repainted my fishroom with everything in tact with no ill effect.... When sanding though... ensure that the inlets of your airpumps (if you're using it) are well covered with filtering materials... to prevent clogging... & also make sure to clean this materials regularly throughout the process.

 

[star4]

We are doing the exact same thing at the moment, we have had to take all the dado rails off the walls (to fit my tanks in) all mine are covered with sheets and the lights are off.

 

[Verminator89]

Righto. Not air intake units being used. I'll more than likely place the tank in the middle of the room and have it half full (to reduce some of the weight on floor) whilst its palced in the centre of the room. Then decorating shall commence. Although i'm weighting up the possibility of just setting the tank up downstairs for a week or so. Only problem with this is transfering the fish + tank and everything else in it around the house. Main issue being i don't want to unsettle my fish that much.

Then again i suppose i would have to empty the tank and remove the fish anyway to move the tank into the middle of the room anyway, then back again after. So i think removing them from the room entirely is probably the safer option for my beloved fish

 

[Krill]

How did you fish go with the redecorating? I am currently in the process of sanding and painting and already had some tetra's go to the giant tank in the sky . As my house is single level and open planned it is hard to move them to a dust/paint free environment, also my tank has a semi open top. I was thinking of placing a damp towel across the top to provide a better barrier, but not sure if that is any better then dry? Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[Danbarb]

If you do use a damp towel, make sure it's not dripping wet as you may contaminate the water with any detergents etc that are on the towel left over from washing. If it were me, I'd use a black plastic bag and cellotape a sort of seal around the opening.

 

[Verminator89]

Blimey. I notice a new feature on our profile "Find Topics" under the display photo, and this is top of my topics started. Looked at it and didnt recognise it, thinking it was someone else topic been acredited to me, or something daft like that. But i find its my post from way back in August 2009, back from the dead. Well...


To answer your question Krill, the decorating of my bedroom was fine. In the end i emptied both my tanks in my bedroom and refilled them both downstairs in the living room. So i never actually had to cover the tanks from fumes/dust ect.

foryourself this will be more difficult as you said. So i'd say you have two options really. I'll delve into them below;

A - You can dismantle the tanks and remove them to a temporary place of residence. Perhaps a family member or friend who wouldnt mind having the tank set-up whilst you decorate. Practical and the fish aught to be ok.

B - You dismantle the tank again, but place it in the centre of a room, or somewhere no decorating is taking place. As mentioned above get a plastic sheet/bag, using celotape around to keep it sealed over the tank. This aught to prevent toxins and/or dust getting into the tank, which could have disastrous consequences to aquatic life.

With regards to B, which is probably easiest, you can perhaps try supermarkets for big sheets. I myself work in Tesco, and the pallets of flour and beer come with a big plastic transparent sheet over the top. If removed carefully (easily done) they come off as one big perfect (and quite thick) sheet which can be placed over a tank as big as 4 or 5ft square. If you ask nicely you could get one of these for free no problems. They might think your mad (my work place think my fishy antics are hilarious), but its easy and convenient.

Hope this helps, and thanks for the momentary confusion over this thread Really confused me for a minute.

I should add also that during my redecoration of my room i suffered no losses. My Jack Dempseys are still happy and healthy as ever

 

[Krill]

Sorry about the confusion - at least it was only momentary .

As the painting might be a year long weekend warrior effort, I have rigged up a layer of plastic sheeting, sealed to the tank stand via "bungie cord" (elastic rope with hooks on the end). I have them layed a drop sheet to collect most of the dust. So far it seems to be working as I haven't lost any more fish - just my sanity (I think the previous owner stuck on the wall paper with super glue ).

Thanks for your help.